Injured Quail

[Nabiki]

So I’ve checked and there’s no sign that anything might have got in at all.
One other thought we have had, one of the females recently has been piling up eggs in a nest & when my housemate tried to collect eggs from that area the other day the quail was trying to peck her hand. Is it possible that a female may be trying to protect her nest?
This is a close up of the injury:

It's possible, but again, I think it's unlikely. @FloorCandy may be on to something about a small predator reaching through the wire. If you were in north America, I might think raccoon, but since you're in the UK, perhaps a weasel?

 

[ButtonBag]

Didn't someone here recently have their entire flock wiped out by a weasel? And they were all beheaded so the neck injury would fit.

 

[Slilly16]

Hi All,

As an update, I was quite concerned with the more severe injury as a considerable chunk of skin had come away & it looked a bit infected, so I took both quail to the vets today.
Fortunately, as long as I keep them inside whilst they heal (to avoid flies) and keep the wounds clean it looks like they both will make a full recovery!

In terms of what caused it, I still haven’t witnessed any fights amongst the quail so am thinking that they either: put their head through the wire, got caught and panicked, or some sort of predator managed to get them.

I now have a roll of 1/2” wire to predator-proof the pen, fingers crossed I have no more injuries!

Thanks all once again for the help!

 

[GreedySeedFeedy]

That does not, in my experience, look like it was inflicted by another quail. I think the others are right, and a motion camera or wireless webcam might be a really good idea. These types of quail attract a lot of predators. Even if it seems like nothing can get in, an adult rat can squeeze into any space large enough for its skull to fit through, and a mouse can get into a 1cm by 1cm hole.
In addition to a camera, you might want to put some rat traps outside and around your enclosure. I have had one rat kill over 30 budgies in a single night just for fun, so it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Quailobsessed]

Hopefully you can work things out so nobody gets hurt. I love that enclosure btw